Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Elements Review

Elements of what, exactly?

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, a PC game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Ubisoft in 2006, was an action role-playing game set in a medieval fantasy world. For the Xbox 360 port, Ubisoft decided to drop the majority of the game's role-playing features to focus on its ultra-linear action side instead.

Like its predecessor, in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Elements, you play as Sareth, a young apprentice of nebulous parentage who embarks on a world-saving mission. It's like every fantasy novel you've ever read, minus the engaging dialogue and character growth. There are demons, ancient relics, crystals and everything you've come to expect from many recent Western fantasy RPGs, except for the role-playing.

In the PC version of Dark Messiah, you had some control over your character's growth. Completing objectives and dispatching enemies earned you skill points, which you could then distribute as you saw fit. In Elements, the level-up process is nearly 100 percent linear, just like the gameplay. You'll level up as you progress, but the game allots the skill points you earn in a pre-set fashion, depending on which of four basic classes you've chosen to play as: warrior, archer, assassin or mage.

Don't make me kick you.

With these RPG nods removed, Elements becomes solely an action game consisting of a seemingly endless series of battles set against a thin narrative backdrop. Aside from small detours in treasure-filled nooks and crannies, Elements is an on-rails experience and there's no open-world aspect to speak of.

Along the way, you'll be guided along by a cast of kooky characters like Xana, an oversexed spirit vixen, portrayed by a voice actress who manages to sound like she's auditioning for a low-budget porno and a high school play at the same time. Not that the other voice actors are much better; they all fairly slaughter an already hackneyed, directionless script.

There is unquestionable fun to be had with the game, as it theoretically works as a fantasy-themed monster melee concept. Powered by Valve's Source engine and the Havok physics engine, Elements gives you a handful of ways to kill whatever comes at you. Depending on what class you choose, you can dispatch baddies with sword, bow, dagger, staff or magic, each of which have a secondary Power Strike function and an additional, higher-level function that can be unleashed once you build up your adrenaline bar (filled by dealing damage).

Something evil is afoot.

But the real pleasure in Elements comes from environmental kills, the opportunities for which are plentiful. In addition to attacking and defending, Sareth has the ability to kick his opponents, sending them stumbling backward a few steps. It's a simple move that allows for some creative results. Kicking an opponent into a fire results in instant death, as does kicking an enemy into a wall of spikes or over the edge of a cliff.

Sticking your foot in your victim's chest and watching him plummet to his death, screaming on the way down, is by far the most satisfying part of Elements, second only to punting enemies onto protruding spikes. In medieval times, it was apparently the custom to stack spiked boards every 50 feet in caves and castles, which makes it easy to kick enemies to their pointy reward. Do the forty-odd Black Knights I've slaughtered in this fashion regret their decision to populate the spaces they patrol with spikes, useless fires and precariously-positioned shelving full of heavy barrels? Well, it serves them right for following whatever evil thing I'm fighting that I lost interest in a long time ago.